Astroworld investigation: Medical staff at Astroworld responded to 11 cardiac arrests at once, medical company CEO says
Alex Pollak told reporters that his staff were faced with the “impossible feat” of treating 11 people in cardiac arrest at the same time. He said while an active threat such as a mob surge is underway, the protocol prohibits them from going into a situation where they could risk personal harm. Yet his staff continued to retreat into the dangerous crowd to help people.
“This is something that I will have nightmares about for the rest of my life,” Pollak said. “The team is very disappointed by this. Seeing so many young people receiving CPR at the same time, it’s just something that no one has to go through. Even though we are medical professionals, we should used it. You can’t get used to something like that.”
Pollak, who is running the concert, said ParaDocs staff used walkie-talkies provided by event organizers.
Pollak said Paradocs are unlikely to call for a halt to the concert. He said he believed the concert should have been stopped sooner, but that stopping the concert suddenly at the time could have caused the riot and made the situation worse. He said he could not speculate on what could have been done to contain the situation.
Pollak said the standard rate at these types of events is one ambulance per thousand people. ParaDocs has staff and resources estimated at 70,000, when actual concert attendance is estimated at 50,000.
ParaDocs specializes in providing medical care at major events, Pollak said, adding that his team has extensive experience in logistics and concert production lingo. They are often included so that local first responders can continue to focus on frequent 911 calls in their community. Pollak said ParaDocs does not own any ambulances, but five to seven ambulances have been contracted to serve Astroworld.
The CEO says the challenge is in and out of the venue
HPD reported “dangerous crowd conditions” an hour before Scott was set to perform. Eight minutes before Scott took the stage at 9 p.m., more than 260 people were treated, according to the diary, which did not specify the type of treatment. And the 9:18 p.m. entry noted a “heart wound”.
Less than half an hour after Scott’s performance, the diary reads: “This is when it all came to fruition.”
“Many people were trampled and lost consciousness in front of the stage” at 9:33 p.m., police said. Minutes later, a police dispatcher reported five 911 calls of “unconscious people in the crowd. Report possible CPR.”
Pollak, CEO of ParaDocs, said his staff – including combat veterans – performed CPR in the back of a stroller, but concert-goers jumped on board, pull them away from you.
“They thought it was a joke,” Pollak said, adding that there were no CPR patients waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
“We’ve never run out of equipment and supplies,” Pollak said. “We were able to treat at least twice as many patients. We never expected in our lives to see a situation like this again. .
The challenge, he said, is not resources or staff, but the difficulty of getting in and out of dangerous crowds to reach people in need of medical help.
Pollak described a Unified Command where multiple entities sit at the same desk throughout the day: Houston police, festival security, festival production staff, Paradocs coordinators, and Nuclear emergency coordinators Harris level.
He said it was one of the Paradocs dispatchers at Unified Command who stood up and issued a statement about the “mass casualty incident”.
Judge does not push for independent investigation
“What happened at Astroworld this weekend is a horrific tragedy, and the families of the victims deserve answers. Criminal liability is very likely, and that’s why we continue to continue.” continue to fully support the Houston Police Department’s criminal investigation,” Rafael Lemaitre, communications director, told Hidalgo.
“At the same time, Harris County continues the process of identifying a separate, independent third party to review any operational or administrative steps – in addition to any criminal activity – that may be taken to prevent stop this from happening.”
Hidalgo did not receive the necessary assistance from the Harris County Commissioners to conduct an independent investigation, she told reporters Monday.
“I really tried to do my best in public and in private to promote this,” Hidalgo said. “What the trustees support is an independent look at events scheduled for NRG parks to make sure they are following best practices.”
The motion, which was unanimously approved by the Harris County Commissioner’s Court, supported the HPD’s investigation and directed the County Administrator to “meet with the Harris County Athletic Conference Company and the Houston Harris County Athletic Authority to advance conduct an independent assessment of the security, fire, life, and safety plans of all scheduled outdoor concerts on NRG park grounds.”
The review will also be coordinated with the mayor’s office and “relevant departments,” suggested reading.
“The wording is so vague that there really isn’t much of it,” says Hidalgo.
It is not clear why the county commissioners did not support Hidalgo’s proposal as the discussions took place during the executive session, which is not made public.
Before entering the session, Commissioner Adrian Garcia of Harris County raised questions of liability.
“An item that could open the door to liability that the county isn’t currently subject to, and so if there’s that possibility, I’d like to discuss this in an executive session,” Garcia said.
Ed Lavendera, Travis Caldwell, Paul Vercammen, Ray Sanchez, Victor Blackwell, Jennifer Henderson, Chloe Melas and Gregory Lemos of CNN contributed to this report.
